Sofa bed with shiftable back



y 21 1953 F. s. KNOLL Em 2,645,788

SOFA BED WITH SHIFTABLE BACK Filed Nov. 27, 1948 gi FIG. I. z: 5

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fl 9 V /a f l i 211? INVENTORS FLORENCE s. KNOLL clmss w. NIEDRINGHAUS ATTORNEY Patented July 21, 1953 SOFA BED WITH SHIF'IABLE BACK Florence S. Knoll and Charles W. Niedringhaus, New York, N. Y., assignors to Knoll Associates,

Inc., New York, N. Y.

Application November 27, 1948, Serial N 0. 62,292

1 Claim. (Cl. 559) This invention relates to articles of furniture, and more particularly to a sofa-bed, which may be used either as a sofa or as a bed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a sofa-bed which is equipped with simple means for effecting its conversion from one type of furniture into the other type of furniture.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a sofa-bed which is equipped with simple means for holding its back either, in position for use as a sofa or in position for use as 'a bed.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a sofa-bed which may be readily manipulated.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a sofa-bed which may be manufactured at low costs.

With the above and other objects of the invention in view, the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and combination of various elements and parts, as set forth in the claim hereof and described hereinafter, an embodiment of the same being described in the specification and being illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification wherein:

Fig. l is a front elevational View of a sofa-bed according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the sofa-bed shown in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a sectional view similar to that shown in Fig. 3, illustrating however only a part of the elements shown in Fig. 3 in an enlarged scale, and

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of a bearing and stopping means along line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Referring now to the drawings, l generally indicates a frame of a sofa-bed. Said frame H! has two front legs l2 and two rear legs I 4. A tubular upright I6 is attached to each rear leg M. Each upright I6 is bent in such a manner that it extends upward at the rear edge of the sofa-bed. Furthermore a retaining bar I8 is secured to the frame In at each side edge thereof.

The frame If] carries a seat-section of the sofabed which, according to the embodiment shown in the drawings, comprises a box spring 20 and a mattress 22. Said seat-section 26, 22 is spaced from the retaining bars H3 at each side of the sofa-bed.

On each side of the sofa-bed an arm 24 is slidably inserted into the space between the seatsection 20, 22 and the retaining bar [8.

2 The back 26 of the sofa-bed is movably carried by two swivel elements 28 each of which being made of a rod having an upwardly extending end 30 and a downwardly extending end 32 connected with each other by a connecting portion 34. The upwardly extending end 30 of each swivel element 28 is rotatably engaged with a tubular bearing 36 arranged in a bore of the frame of the back 26. A flange 38 of the bearing 36 rests loosely on a pin 40 inserted into a bore of the upwardly extendin end 30 and projecting at both sides thereof. J

The downwardly extending end 32 of each swive1 element 26 is rotatably engaged with an upright I6. A pin 42 inserted into a bore of said downwardly extending end 32 and projecting at both sides thereof is loosely engaged with the upper end of the tubular upright l 6.

' full lines.

When the sofa-bed is used as a sofa, the back 26 and the arms 24 are in the position shown in In said position the back 26 is located at a predetermined distance from the front edge of the sofa-bed above the seat-section 26, 22. The movable back 26 is held in said position by means of the arms 24 engaging same at its ends. The distance between the front edge of the sofa-bed and the back 26 is chosen in such a way thaa a person or persons may comfortably set on the sofa-bed when using same as a sofa.

If it is desired to convert the sofa-bed into a bed-like furniture, one of the arms 24, for example the arm 24 at the left hand side of the sofabed as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2 is slid by hand into the dash and dot line position 24' shown in Fig. 2 wherein it is disengaged from the back 26. Now the back 26 may be moved by hand into the dash and dot line positions 26 wherein it is at a larger distance from the front edge of the sofabed, so that the entire width of the seat-section 20, 22 may be used for a comfortable resting on the article of furniture. During said movement of the back 26 from its full line position into its dash and dot line position 26' the upwardly extending ends 36 of the swivel elements 28 rotate in the bearing 36 of the back 26 and the downwardly extending ends 32 of said swive1 elements rotate in the uprights I 6.

When the back 26 has been brought into the position 26', the left hand arm is returned into its full line position 24 wherein it engages the back at the front thereof, thus preventing same from returning towards the front edge of the sofa-bed.

On the other hand, the back can not be swung farther away from the front edge of the sofa- 3 bed than into the position 26' as the stopping pin 44 (see Figs. 4 and 5) secured to the upwardly extending end 30 abuts against the edge 46 of a recess 48 arranged at the upper end of the tubular bearing 36. If instead of the left hand arm 24 the right hand arm 24 would have been disengaged from the back 26 for swinging same into another position permitting the use of the article of furniture as a bed, the stopping pin 44 would abut against the edge 50 of the recess 48 for limiting the degree of swinging of the back 26.

If desired, however, the stopping pin 44 or other suitable stopping means could be entirely omitted; in such a case the degree of swinging of the back 26 would be limited by an abutting of the back 26 against a wall of a room.

If it is desired to reconvert the article of furniture from a bed-like article into a sofa, the arm 24 is again slid from its holding position shown in full lines into its releasing position 24, whereupon the back may be swung from the position 26' into its full line position 26. Thereafter the arm 24 is returned into its holding position and the back 23 is safely held in its position above the seat-section 29, 22 by means of the arms 24 engaging same at its ends.

We have described a preferred embodiment of our invention, but it is understood that this disclosure is for the purpose of illustration and that various omissions or changes in shape, proportion and arrangement of parts, as well as the substitution of equivalent elements for those herein shown and described, may be made wit out departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claim.

What we claim is:

In a sofa bed, having a frame and a seat portion supported thereon, in combination, two spaced brackets rotatably supported by said frame for rotation about a vertical axis throughout a fraction of a full turn, each bracket including a vertical upward extension, a back-rest in pivotal connection with the upward extensions of said pair of brackets whereby said back-rest is movable in an arcuate path between an active position above said seat portion and respectively one of two inactive positions to the rear of and clear of said seat portion, a side portion on said frame normally positioned in the path of at least a part of said back-rest to restrain releasable movement thereof from the active position to one of the two inactive positions and being shiftable forwardly to clear the path of said back-rest, a protrusion arranged in at least one of said upward extensions of the brackets, and a pair of spaced abutting means arranged on said backrest at the pivotal connection thereof with said upward extension carrying the protrusion, said protrusion being arranged for abutting cooperation with one of said abutting means in each of the two inactive positions of the back-rest to limit the path thereof.

FLORENCE S. KNOLL. CHARLES W. NIEDRII'EGHAUS.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS Number 

